see / saw / no up / down, 2023

welded steel and terrazzo
137 x 130 x 52 cm

Delia A. Prodan’s sculpture is rooted in the childhood memory of a playground nestled between blocks of flats. Concrete slides, twisted swings, rusted gas pipes passing through – they all survive in the artist’s memory, as well as in several photographs that she took there as an art student bewildered by the sculptural character of the place, just before the old, massive devices were removed.

The seesaw is the first in a series of planned objects through which Delia A. Prodan aims to recreate the entire playground by blending subjective reality (personal recollections and fictionalization) and objective reality (the details captured in the photographs). For her, this playground is the poignant embodiment of fragility not only because the slides, swings and seesaws were meant for children, but because the place itself – as she knew it – has ceased to exist.

Made of steel and terrazzo, the work contrasts the original roughness of materials with the gentle purpose of the object. It moves between past and present with a lyrical approach best evidenced by the rhythm of the title:
see
saw
no up
down.